Git flow for backend system

Question

I am trying to follow the git flow process to deploy my backend service. The backend service is a graphQL API and we have a golden rule of NEVER break backward compatibility.

I can't see why do I need a release branch. If I am not breaking any backward compatibility what I am going to test on release environment?

New Feature Development

• Branch from development
• Develop on local branch, executing local unit tests.
• When is ready, open a PR to development
• Rebase PR to development, execute unit tests, create a dev environment and execute integration tests.
• Merge with master.
• Deploy to production and N other sandboxes. These sandboxes is going to be used for integration with third parties. For example, the front end wbe could use this sandbox to make tests.

Answer 1

The idea of using a release branch in git flow is that you can take a segment of the develop branch which you know is in a good condition, bug fix it as necessary then merge that into master which is then back merged into develop again.

If you're merging develop into master (skipping release) that's fine, but you'll need to be extra careful that you're not accidentally taking unstable/untested develop branch commits. This is what release branches explicitly separate the risk of.

Git flow is a branching strategy, but in my experience no branching strategy suits every project equally. You should draw ideas from various places and find something that suits your project best. Git flow is a great approach in general though.